Due to the Reds early exit from the NLDS on Sunday night, I flew back to Colorado on Monday. I got back to Denver at about 5:00PM. For dinner, Dick and Jan took me to Pasta Jay's in Boulder. Uncle Dick had informed me that it was one of my grandfather's favorite restaurants in Colorado, so I was eager to try it. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. I had the Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and a caesar salad, washed down with a Fat Tire beer. It had been a long day since we hadn't gotten back to Columbus from the Reds game until 2:00AM Monday morning. I was pretty tuckered out so after dinner we went back to Dick and Jan's and I proceeded to pack my bags for my impending departure on Tuesday morning.
I woke up on Tuesday had a bagel for breakfast and got Wheezy packed up. It was raining pretty hard so it was time for the inevitable; the rain gear. When I left Columbus on the trip, I knew at some point I would encounter inclement weather so I came prepared. I donned my normal riding pants and jacket and then augmented the ensemble with a rain jacket, FrogTog pants, waterproof covers for my boots and my gloves. There wasn't a whole lot else that I could do to cover up so I set off for Kansas. It rained pretty steadily for about 150 miles. I really wanted to get away from the rain as fast as I could, so I postponed my ordinary 100 mile gas stop and decided to keep going until I had to use the reserve on my gas tank. It just so happened that when I hit the reserve, the rain let up. So I made my way to the next gas station and filled up. I wasn't confident that I had completely escaped the precipitation so I decided to keep the rain gear on until the next stop just to be sure. By the time I'd banged out the next 100 miles the sun had actually broken through the clouds.
Wheezy ran great and the new tires handled the rain slicked roads like it was attached with velcro. I'm very happy with my tire choice. I managed to snap a couple of border pictures while on the ride too. I of course got the Kansas sign, but I also doubled back and got the Colorado sign that I missed on my late night ride last Wednesday.
I had set my sites on Dodge City, KS as my stopping point for the day. It is over half-way to my next destination of Tulsa, OK. I had such a good experience at the Super 8 hotel I stayed at last Tuesday so I decided to try them again. I didn't have as much luck at this Super 8, but it's a decent room and I got here early enough that I could go out and grab a bite to eat and unwind before hitting the sack. Speaking of hitting the sack, I need to get up early tomorrow to get a move on so that's what I'm going to do right now. Until tomorrow...
